Savoia-Marchetti S.64
The Savoia-Marchetti S.64 was a large wooden monoplane built in Italy in 1928 for a single purpose: to capture the world's long-distance flight records. Designed by Alessandro Marchetti around one Fiat engine mounted above a wing that was largely fuel tank, it set world records for closed-circuit distance and endurance in the summer of 1928, then flew non-stop from Montecelio to Brazil, a flight the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale recognised as a world straight-line distance record of 7,188 km. The first aircraft was donated to Brazil after that flight. A second, improved aircraft, the S.64bis, retook the closed-circuit records in 1930 and was lost in a fatal crash at sea in 1931.
Why It Mattered
The Savoia-Marchetti S.64 was a record machine, developed in the late 1920s for one purpose: to contest the world duration and distance records. In the summer of 1928 its crew took both prizes, setting world records for closed-circuit distance and for endurance, and then flew non-stop across the South Atlantic to Brazil. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) recognised the Brazil flight as a new world straight-line distance record. In Italy, the flights made the S.64 one of the symbols of the country's aeronautical and technological progress. Only two examples were built, and both spent their short careers chasing records rather than carrying passengers or cargo.
Design Notes
Alessandro Marchetti designed the S.64, and its shape was refined through extensive wind tunnel testing of scale models. The wing was a cantilever structure made in a single piece, entirely of wood, with three spars and a plywood skin. The two pilots sat side by side in a short, fully enclosed pod, and the tail was carried behind the wing on two open trusses, an arrangement similar to that of the earlier S.55 flying boat. A single Fiat A.22T V-12 engine stood on struts high above the centre of the wing and drove a pusher propeller. Fuel was carried in 27 tanks inside the wing, some 7,000 litres in all, and the airframe was divided into watertight compartments so that it could float after a forced landing on water. Behind the right-hand seat, a tunnel-shaped bunk let the off-duty pilot rest during the long flights.
Operational History
The aircraft was developed in great secrecy and made its first flight on 3 April 1928. Testing centred on Montecelio, where the Regia Aeronautica had built a sloping concrete runway to help the heavily fuelled aircraft get airborne. On 31 May 1928 Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo Del Prete began the first record attempt, flying 51 round trips between Torre Flavia and Anzio, on the coast west of Rome. They covered 7,666 km and stayed aloft for more than 58 hours, taking the world records for closed-circuit distance and for endurance, and set a speed record over 5,000 km of 139 km/h. The flight had been announced as a proving exercise for a transatlantic crossing, at first planned to New York. Instead, on the evening of 3 July 1928, Ferrarin and Del Prete left Montecelio for Brazil. Poor weather and a shrinking fuel supply forced them down on a beach at Touros, north of Natal, after covering some 8,100 km in 48 hours and 14 minutes. The FAI recognised the flight at 7,188 km — the great-circle distance between Montecelio and Natal — as a new world straight-line distance record. Damaged in the landing on the sand, the S.64 was taken to Rio de Janeiro by ship and donated to Brazil.
Afterlife
The celebrations in Rio de Janeiro ended in tragedy: on 11 August 1928 Ferrarin and Del Prete crashed in an S.62 flying boat during a demonstration flight, and Del Prete died of his injuries five days later. A second, improved aircraft, designated S.64bis, took back the closed-circuit records in 1930, when Umberto Maddalena and Fausto Cecconi covered 8,188 km in just over 67 hours. On 19 March 1931 the S.64bis crashed into the sea off Pisa, killing Maddalena, Cecconi and their mechanic, Giuseppe Da Monte. The 1928 flight is commemorated in Rio de Janeiro's Praça Carlo Del Prete, where a statue of Del Prete stands beside a half-scale bronze model of the aircraft.